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Author Topic: Re-balling a GPU on a motherboard  (Read 13030 times)
Lincoln7
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« on: March 26, 2013, 07:05:18 PM »

Wasn't sure where to post this, so that's why it's on this topic sub-heading.

I have a Gateway P-7805u FX laptop that I bought about 5 years ago. About a year or so after I bought it I noticed that the graphics started acting buggy, black screens after gaming on medium or high settings, weird multi-colored freeze screens, etc.  Tried updating drivers multiple times, uninstalling and reinstalling nVidia drivers, and even reinstalling the operating system. After doing some research online, I discovered that Gateway sagaciously decided to use a certain kind of lead-free solder on their GPU's when soldering them to the motherboards on this particular model. After several cycles of heating and cooling, the solder would crack and cause the GPU to malfunction. It wasn't on all models, but it appears that a good chunk of models used this kind of defective solder. I looked online on different forums and others have had the same problems, citing the same issues. It turns out that the only fix for it, is to either replace the entire motherboard, or to re-ball the GPU to the motherboard using regular lead solder. SInce it is out of warranty, I have to fix it myself and at my own cost or pay someone else to do it for me. I found a company online who does this kind of repair and they would do it for probably around $400 when it's all said and done, but I would prefer to not have to do that if I can help it.

My question is this: has anyone in the group ever had to do this kind of repair, how complicated is it, and do you have any recommendations/

Sincere thanks.

Lincoln7
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Renegade
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« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2013, 07:11:47 PM »

Not something I would do myself as that is a surface mount chip and you really need a machine to do that work.     Only real options are replace unit, replace MB, or pay a company that has the equipment to fix it.     

You might also talk to Action or look on ebay for the exact model and just buy a working used one an put your drives in it an your back up.

I would go for somethign new as that unit for gaming is getting a bit long in the tooth now a days.
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Renegade
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« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2013, 07:44:52 PM »

Yeah, that kind of stuff is impossible to do by hand. However, since I was posting on a thread earlier about Red Rings on the Xbox 360, I seem to recall that more than a few people said online that you could fix a red ring (at least temporarily) which is the same issue as this sounds like (the solder coming a little loose) by rigging up something to push the chip into the board harder. You could possibly take the laptop apart and see if you can put something like a heat resistant piece of foam on what ever panel sits 'above' the gpu, to push down on it?
Barring that, I would suggest just replacing the whole laptop. A laptop isn't worth 400$ to repair unless it was like a 1200$ laptop a year ago. IMO. And in that case, it is usually still under warranty, unless you dropped it or something.

EDIT: I mean push on heatsink, not the chip directly. Don't want to interupt the heat transfer to the heatsink.
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Ogre
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« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2013, 07:45:15 PM »

Some of my friends and I have done this before but mostly to 360s And Playstation 3. Like Renegade said, for that model I would suggest biting the bullet and get a newer system and throw that on Craigslist for someone willing to fix it.
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Lincoln7
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« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2013, 03:02:32 PM »

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.  It was an $1100 laptop that I bought about 5 years ago, and yes, it is getting a bit long in the tooth, but I was hoping I could salvage it and keep it sputtering a few more miles down the road until I could build myself a nice desktop unit to bring with me to the LAN's.

I will probably check around to see if I can find someone to repair it, or just find a replacement motherboard myself.

Thanks again for the feedback.
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code
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« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2013, 08:33:24 PM »

looking around $180.00 to get a repair / buy a motherboard for it.  At least that is what I found in my 10mins of checking for you.
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Lincoln7
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« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2013, 03:26:53 PM »

looking around $180.00 to get a repair / buy a motherboard for it.  At least that is what I found in my 10mins of checking for you.
Thanks for checking, Code. I found pretty much the same results myself.
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